The Cabrera Lab Podcast

Get 20% off any STSI course with code MEET20 — get your meetings right today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera unpack why so many meetings feel busy, repetitive, and unproductive—and why the problem may be deeper than the agenda.

They argue that most meetings focus almost entirely on information, while ignoring how that information is being organized into meaning. The result is that everyone can hear the same words, leave the same room, and still walk away with completely different mental models of what was decided, what matters, and what happens next. 

Derek and Laura explore how meetings can become true “meetings of the minds” by making mental models visible. Instead of relying on talking, a single scribe, or passive listening, they recommend drawing, building, mapping, and physically organizing ideas so that everyone can see and shape the same structure together. 

They also explain why shared mental models reduce the need for micromanagement, prevent months of wasted work, and help teams make countless small decisions that stay aligned with the same goal. 

If your team spends hours meeting but still struggles with alignment, clarity, and execution, this episode offers a systems thinking approach to redesigning meetings around what actually matters: shared meaning.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code COLLEGE20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera ask a fundamental question: what is college actually supposed to do?

As confidence in higher education declines, they argue that conversations about cost, careers, credentials, and politics may be missing the most important purpose of education: teaching people how to think. Information changes rapidly, careers evolve, and knowledge becomes outdated—but the ability to organize new information, build mental models, question assumptions, and adapt to reality remains valuable across a lifetime. 

Derek and Laura explore the difference between an I curriculum focused primarily on information and an O curriculum focused on developing the ability to organize information into meaningful, actionable understanding. They also discuss workforce preparation, institutional bias, the rising cost of college, and why simply transferring information from professor to student is an outdated model of learning. 

Ultimately, they argue that education should prepare young people for a future we cannot fully predict—not by giving them all the answers, but by giving them the tools to make sense of whatever comes next.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code CAL20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera explore a simple idea with big implications: your calendar is a mental model.

What you schedule—and what you leave off—reveals something about how you organize your priorities, time, work, and life. Derek and Laura discuss how calendars, to-do lists, meetings, and deadlines can become useful tools, but can also create busyness, unnecessary pressure, and systems that quietly dictate our behavior. 

They also explore the difference between progress and productivity, intrinsic versus external motivation, unrealistic daily expectations, and why constantly judging yourself by what you accomplished can become its own trap. Instead, they argue for examining whether the systems around you actually support the life and outcomes you want. 

From calendars and classrooms to workplace systems and everyday routines, the episode shows how we embed mental models into the structures around us—and how those structures then shape our behavior. If your schedule feels like it is running your life, this episode offers a systems thinking lens for redesigning it.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code BRAIN20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera  deconstruct a familiar phrase: “That’s just the way it is.”

They explore the difference between accepting reality and surrendering to an outdated mental model. Sometimes “that’s the way it is” means acknowledging a real constraint. Other times, it means accepting a pattern, policy, culture, or way of working simply because it has existed for a long time. 

The conversation examines how individual and collective mental models shape behavior, why successful old patterns can become difficult to challenge, and how organizations can uncover the thinking that sits underneath entrenched processes. They also explain why changing culture is ultimately about changing shared mental models—not simply trying to force different behavior.

If you hear “that’s just the way it is” in your team, organization, family, or even your own thinking, Derek and Laura argue that it should be a signal to stop, define what “it” actually is, and ask whether you are dealing with an unchangeable reality—or a mental model that can be rebuilt.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code IQ20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera challenge the way we think about intelligence.

They argue that most people do not have an intelligence problem—they have a problem with the structure of their thinking. Rather than defining “smart” by IQ, credentials, memorized information, or expertise, they explore intelligence as the ability to adapt to reality, reorganize information, solve novel problems, and respond to feedback. 

The conversation explores the difference between information and organization, why expertise can sometimes create blind spots, how simple questions can uncover flawed assumptions, and why teams need shared mental models before they can work effectively together. Derek and Laura also explain how DSRP helps people see the underlying structure of problems instead of simply accumulating more information. 

If you have ever believed that intelligence is something you either have or you don’t, this episode offers a different framework: being smart is about practice, adaptivity, structure, and your willingness to let reality change your mind.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code SMARTER20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera tackle a deceptively difficult question: how do you explain systems thinking to someone who knows nothing about it?

They start with one simple idea: your brain is constantly taking information and organizing it to create meaning. That meaning becomes your mental models—and those mental models directly shape your decisions, actions, emotions, and behaviors. Systems thinking helps you become more aware of how you are organizing information, not just what you are thinking about.

Derek and Laura then walk through the Six Moves—Is/Is Not, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Part Party, Relationship Zoom, and Perspective Circle—and explain how these simple tools can dramatically improve the way we organize information and understand complex situations.

If systems thinking has ever felt too complicated or abstract, this episode offers a practical starting point: begin with something familiar, make the structure visible, and start practicing how you organize the world around you.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code BURNOUT20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera think through the difference between stress and burnout—and why treating them as the same thing can lead us to solve the wrong problem.

They explore stress as something that can sometimes be functional, while burnout emerges as a longer-term pattern of depletion without enough recovery. Rather than blaming the individual, they show how burnout can be understood as a systems problem involving workload, recovery, motivation, sleep, monotony, expectations, and the larger environment a person is operating within.

The conversation also examines agency versus causality: you may not control the system you are in, but you can still identify places where your choices can change its structure. Sometimes that means improving efficiency, setting boundaries, changing expectations, creating recovery, or finding ways to make monotonous work more meaningful.

If you feel constantly depleted, stuck, or unsure whether you are simply stressed or moving toward burnout, this episode offers a systems thinking framework for understanding the pattern—and finding the places where change is actually possible.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code UNIVERSE20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera explore why the most powerful thinking tools are often the simplest.

They unpack the ideas of universality and elementalism: the importance of learning the fundamental patterns that show up across cooking, sports, business, medicine, education, and everyday problem solving. Instead of memorizing thousands of recipes, frameworks, or facts, Derek and Laura explain why mastering a small set of universal thinking structures can help you adapt to almost any situation.

The conversation also explores M = IO, the difference between information and meaning, why more information does not automatically create better understanding, and how DSRP helps us organize information into useful mental models.

If you want to think more clearly, solve problems more flexibly, and stop drowning in information, this episode offers a systems thinking case for returning to the fundamentals.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code LRL20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University answer a practical question from a listener: how do we help kids run the Love Reality Loop for themselves?

They explore how adults can move from solving conflict for kids to coaching kids through the process of testing their own mental models against reality. The conversation breaks down how children can learn to pause, regulate emotions, separate thoughts from feelings, ask better questions, observe what is actually happening, and become more curious about whether their story matches reality.

Derek and Laura also connect the Love Reality Loop to science, feedback, emotional regulation, adaptive thinking, and everyday life. They explain why kids do not just need adults to adjudicate reality for them—they need repeated practice learning how to notice when their thinking is out of sync and how to bring it back into alignment.

If you work with kids, parent kids, teach kids, or simply want to become better at testing your own assumptions, this episode offers a systems thinking framework for developing self-awareness, emotional regulation, and reality-based thinking from the earliest stages of life.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code MORALS20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera explore how to build and test your own moral compass.

They discuss what happens when a pre-made moral structure—such as religion, family norms, or inherited beliefs—no longer fully guides you, and how systems thinking can help you develop a more conscious ethical framework. Using DSRP, they unpack the moral implications of identity and other, part-whole systems, relationships, perspectives, consequences, and the balance between self and others.

The conversation also explores values, beliefs, ethics, morality, rationalization, integrity, the Golden Rule, perspective taking, and the Love Reality Loop. Derek and Laura explain why moral development is not a one-time decision, but an ongoing process of testing your mental models against reality and asking whether your actions work not just for you, but for the larger systems you are part of.

If you’ve ever questioned your values, struggled with inherited beliefs, or wondered how to know whether you are doing the right thing, this episode offers a systems thinking framework for building a moral compass with clarity, humility, and agency.